"What To Do Before Dying..."

Considering my recent brush with death it will not surprise you that it got me to thinking of my own mortality. That is, after all, our natural response as humans when we look the angel of death eye to eye and feel his cold grip upon our shoulder beckoning us to the great beyond.

Now you may be thinking that an exploding hot sauce packet does not truly count as a near-death experience but I beg to differ! I saw my life flash before my eyes and what I saw was, well, boring.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some great experiences in my life and some wonderful stories have developed from those experiences. Who else do you know that has been chased out of the Gora Gora Crater in Tanzania Africa by the Mossai tribe? Probably no one (oh…evidently…even though there are no signs posted….you are not allowed to get OUT of your vehicle while looking at the lions….they really should post a sign or something!).

What I did realize with my life flashing before my eyes is there is so much I’d like to do before departing this world for the life that awaits me. You’ve heard it said, “you only go around once” and I’ve found this to be true. So, I decided to make a list of all the things I’d like to do before dying and thought I’d share it with you all so you could keep me honest and make sure I stick to my list! Thanks for your support.

After giving this much thought, for most of the day actually, here is the list of things I’d like to do before dying:

1. Write a list of things to do before dying. Now, I’m pretty sure I can keep this one since I’m doing that already. I mean, what kind of life would I had led had I never even made such a list? But you have to understand, this goes against the grain of my very being. I am a very competitive person and HATE failure. For that reason I developed a strong sense of shooting for nothing a long time ago. And you know what? I hit it every time. But I think I can do this one. (actually, since I’ve already started, I’m going to go ahead and check this one off my list).

2. READ the list of things to do before dying. What good is such a list if you simply write it and then forget about it? I don’t want to be one of “those” people. So I figure to cover my bases I need to add reading the list to my list. (you know, I’m reading this as I type so I can go ahead and check this one off my list also).

3. DO one of the items on my list of things to do before dying. Actually, I’ve already done two of the things on my list of things to do before dying so I guess I’ve done this one too! Well, then I guess I’ve done all three of the things on my list of things to do before dying so I’m batting .1000 so far! Awesome! I don’t know why I didn’t make this list a long time ago!

4. TELL someone about my list of things to do before dying and what I’ve accomplished on said list to this point in my life. Well, I guess all of you reading this list could be considered told about the list and I have kept you up to speed on what I’ve accomplished so far so I’ve done this item as well.

5. DO everything on my list of things to do before dying…uh…before dying. It seems I’ve done everything on my list of things to do before dying to this point so I guess I’ve done this one as well! AWESOME!

There. That’s my list. And apparently, without even realizing it, I have accomplished everything in this life I set out to do. The sense of accomplishment is so over-whelming right now you can’t imagine. But with that, also comes a great sense of despair because, what else is there for me now? I’ve already done everything I could ever imagine doing.

I highly recommend you try this exercise. It makes you realize you’re not worthless at all! You can do anything you set your mind to do!

I did!